Your first job is your most important job. It moulds you, it inspires you and it sets the course for your first few years. Imagine an experience where it all goes horribly wrong……
You’ve just graduated University and accepted a new role. You’re on cloud 9 and you’re going to change the world. Everyone you know is so proud of you and has so many questions about your new job. As the countdown begins to start the new role you’re starting to panic. What do I wear? What time do I start? Will I be seeing clients on my first day?
The employer hasn’t contacted you and you’ve sent a few emails trying to get a feel for what the role will actually look like. You end up calling the clinic and the receptionist tells you what time the clinic opens and that you have 4 clients booked in on your first day.
It’s Day 1. You turn up to work early, overdressed and in a mild sweat. You’ve spent ten minutes trying to find a parking space and you’ve gotten yourself a bit lost. You finally get to the clinic but no-one is there and you don’t know how to get in. You see movement behind the doors but no-one comes to the front. You call the clinic but no-one answers the phone. You go around the back and find the entry. You cautiously step over the threshold and into your new life.
You’re standing in the hallway of your new clinic. You don’t know which way to turn as its your first time on the premises. Damn that phone interview! The receptionist spots you, introduces themselves and tells you thirty things you need to know. You have remembered about four of them. You ask where you should be. They don’t know either, better wait for the boss they tell you.
The boss rocks up at half past nine and apologises for being late. You’ve just found out your first client is at ten and you’re doing a new assessment. You’ll be fine you’re told but you know you’re not going to be. You’re shown to a clinic room and provided with what you’ll need to do your assessment. The boss tells you not to write on anything because they don’t want to pay for assessment tools.
You meet your first client and commence your first assessment. The client has so many questions. You draw on all your knowledge and get through it. The client is none the wiser but you know that you’ve delivered a sub-standard performance. You question all the hard work you have done to get to this point and start to think about giving it all away. Working in retails not that bad right?
You head out looking for the staff room only to find that this clinic doesn’t have one. It has a tea room and some therapy rooms. You ask where you should write up the report. The boss tells you that you can use the PC in the clinic room or bring your own lap-top. One of the other staff jumps in and lets you know that there’s a nice café down the road where she writes up her progress notes.
Your afternoon is spent in the car going from school to school. Luckily you have all your documentation with you so you go in to each school. A flurry of calls back to the clinic have had the insurances and whatnot sent through to the school. Your lunch is bought through a drive thru window and eaten between jobs. You’re afternoon’s run late because you didn’t know you had to do inductions. The last session is a disaster as its almost the end of the day and little Joey is not interested in anything because they’re ravenous.
You get back to the clinic but all the rooms are booked out. You set up in the tea-room and try to find something productive to do. You take yourself to the bathroom and lose it. The tears flow and it takes you a good ten minutes to get yourself together.
The end of the day happens in a flurry. Everyone around you is so busy. The boss is in a rush but tells you “great job today, same time tomorrow”.
The other staff clear out as soon as they finish their final appointment. The receptionist reminds you to lock up. “You remember the instructions from this morning, right?”. You don’t. You don’t want to ask but you have to. The receptionist gives you the stink eye and shows you again. You make a mental note never to ask them for anything again in your life.
You get back to your car and find you’ve got a ticket. You’ve misread the sign. You have thirty days to pay it. You go home and check your employment agreement. It says you get paid monthly. It’s Day 1 of your new life and you finish it by calling your folks and asking for a loan to pay your fine.
At Eat Speak Learn, we understand the anxieties and pressures of commencing a new role. If you’d like to know more about how we prepare and on-board our new team members, contact us now.
